Los Angeles, May 05: The mutants of "X-Men" are stronger than ever, showing even more box office power than in their first outing. The superhero sequel "X2: X-Men United" debuted with USD 85.85 million domestically, the fourth-best opening-weekend gross ever and a 58 per cent increase over the USD 54.5 million first weekend of the original "X-Men" three years ago. Gurinder Chaddha's "Bend It Like Beckham", which tells the story of an Indian girl in England aspiring to be a football star, was number nine on the US box office top 10 list with collections of USD 1.455 million. Opening in second place after "x2" was "the Lizzie McGuire movie," starring Hilary Duff in a big-screen adaptation of her Disney Channel TV series about a young teen coping awkwardly with adolescence. With an audience of mostly young girls, the movie took in a healthy USD 17 million, according to studio estimates yesterday.
Receipts for "X2" came in behind the record USD 114.8 million for "Spider-Man" over the same weekend last year. The first two "Harry Potter" movies had the second and third best openings, USD 90.3 million for "Sorcerer's Stone" and USD 88.4 million for "Chamber of Secrets."
Overall, however, Hollywood revenues were down with the top 12 movies grossing USD 140.8 million, off 7.6 per cent compared to the same weekend last year, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker exhibitor relations.
"X2" drew about 14.3 million viewers, up 4.2 million from the opening weekend for "X-men."
Bureau Report